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There are passion projects, and then theres Rupert EverettsThe Happy Prince.
All he needed, he said, was the money to make it.
Did that happen?No.
I did find some backers, but I didnt find the billionaire boyfriend who would pay for everything.
Id love to do it through a billionaire.
Those ten years of grind were really useful to me.
I hadnt made a film before, and it enabled me to test my script again and again.
I knew my script inside out by the end of those ten years.
That was enormously useful, because I was able to slip into the role without having to worry.
I suppose Im quite an old-fashioned jot down of actor; I work from the outside in.
I was quite good-looking in that.
You mentioned tinkering with the script.
A friend of mine whos a director helped me, and we went to Paris for awhile.
We stayed in the hotel where Oscar Wilde died.
What did you get out of that?Nothing.
Some places you get a message, and some places you get no message.
And then there was a message: Keep going.
Youre very restrained with the epigrams in the film.
The only real famous one you use isThis wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death.
And then theres another one in there: Why does one run towards ruin?
I think this is essential if you want to understand Wilde.
Its pre-Freudian, but its voicing a very Freudian idea.
Wilde is saying that suffering is more beautiful than a great holiday, basically.
Suffering is the thing that is redemptive.
How so?You limit yourself by what you say.
I would always immediately answer, God, dreadful.
The brain registers that, and then you become that.
You lower the possibilities for yourself.
Not that I want to be a happy-clappy positive freak either.
Do you agree with it?I think life is struggle.
I think weve developed a notion now that life shouldnt be struggle, and thats quite dangerous.
Struggle is the thing that defines us.
Certainly on this film, the struggle was as important as the doing.
I have much more capacity than I thought.
I think I limited myself.
When someone asks you, How are you doing?
today, what do you answer?Dreadful as usual.
But its a different dreadful.Its a different dreadful.
Now Im 60 years old, of course I feel dreadful.
I havent turned 60 yet, actually.
But it will be … theres no surprises.
What do you mean?When youre a baby, every color is new.
I can remember hallucinating at this sudden new sensation of color that Id never seen before.
But now show me shocking pink or purple and Im like [shrugs].
Thats what Oscar Wilde said, funnily enough.
Now that I know it, theres nothing left to write.
Its a lie, actually, but its a clever one.
Whats one thing you wish you wouldve known about directing yourself?That I shouldve done it earlier!
I just really liked working with me.
I liked my ideas, and we were in tune.
I took such care with myself in the edit, and I helped my performance considerably.
Really?No, I didnt have a directing style with the other actors.
I guess I had a camera style more than anything else.
We were mostly handheld, so the camera was weaving in and around us during the action.
Whats a ghost train?Its these trains that go through tunnels and skeletons andthings like that come out.
You go up to a door and it opens and you go Ah!
It gives the movie that quality somehow.
I definitely didnt want to make a snotty old biopic.
I wanted it to look like a cluttered dream of someone dying.
The scenes that became too static were the ones that arent in the film, actually.
When it became static and conventional, it turned intoDownton Abbey.
Theres two bits of nudity.
But thats not very much.
Is that a shocking thing, do you think?
Its not so much shocking, just that Ive noticed it ina few filmsthis fall.
It seems like its a taboo that is quietly being broken.Thats great.
When I started off in cinema, everyone was nude all the time.
What Im not crazy about in movies, funnily enough, is sex.
Why not?Its very difficult to film.
I always hate the noise of snogging.
I dont know why.
All Ive said about that, to be honest,is that its not ideal.
Its obvious that its not.
It feels to me that, for your generation, the futures up for grabs.
Its like a millisecond.
It was very hip to be gay, there was an amazing ambiance of equality.
But cinema didnt run along the same lines.
It was still fairly old-fashioned, very conservative, and a boys club.
That was very confusing for me as a young person.
But there is still a boys club mentality.
The straights can do anything.
They can play a gay part Oh, he was great in that role but the reverse is unimaginable.
Its a phobia thats not about violence, its about an attitude.
But the audience dont have those kind of views, really.
They just want to just be entertained.
You very famously played the gay best friend role inMy Best Friends WeddingandThe Next Best Thing.
These days, you cant do all these things on your own, youll go mad.
Everyone needs that kind of protector.
I was wondering what your thoughts are about campaigning for this movie.I dont really have any.
I never thought of it as a possibility.
All Im concerned about is trying to get people to come see the movie.
I havent been here since 2004, so I dont know how everything works.
Whats happened to limos?
The whole point was limos, and now theyve all gone.
Now everyones trailing out of those big vans.
Thats not very chic, I dont think.
Thats the main thing.
(A) I want limos back.
(B) I dont know, but its a mess obviously.
But our countrys a mess, too.
What do you think is more of a mess, Trump or Brexit?Brexit, because its forever.
Even Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court judge is not forever, even if it is for a long time.
I think this is a good film for Trumps America.
How so?Because its about what could happen to us all.
Ostracized, left penniless, have everything taken from us?De-gilded.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
